Wrapped In Time

by Miss Stacey

Professor James Kendal stopped dead in his tracks in the laboratory when he saw the time-distortion ellipse begin to form about eight feet in front of him. It been six months since he’d seen the identical anomaly for the very first time right in this very laboratory. The time-displacement machine, his creation, vanished into thin air taking with it Professor Karen Barnes during a test of the machines functions. He thought he would not live to see the formation of the time distortion again. He was glad he was wrong. The professor rushed to the intercom and shouted into it.

“Dr. Holden issue an K 2 Alert I need all departments in readiness. The Time Phase Unit is rematerializing I need you to come up to the Laboratory quickly !!!!”

Prof. Kendal’s body was filled with tension as he could see the outline of his machine slowly materializing becoming clearer with each passing moment. Then as suddenly as it had vanished so long ago, it reappeared in the very spot that it once stood, but with a peculiar figure seated at the controls where Karen once sat. The seated figure was a very shapely female encased in a strange iridescent material that covered her from head to toe like a mummy. Her non descript face seemed to be trying to speak as her jaw moved up and down and mewing sounds could be heard. Her arms appeared folded behind her back beneath the strange shiny smooth cocoon.

The sheathed figure turned her head to and fro in a panic and let out a muffled scream as she struggled violently within the material. Her deserate movements caused her to inadvertently tip sideways out of the machine towards the floor. The professor leaped forward with outstretched arms and caught the helpless woman before she fell and eased her onto to his lap. The professor noticed that this strange material which covered the woman was warm and had a faint lumiosity. It was unlike any thing he’d seen before. It was completely smooth with absolutely no visible openings and shifting colors before his eyes whenever the woman inside it tried to move. Oddly the material covering her face had no nostril holes but somehow the woman could still breath through it. What could have done this to Karen the Professor wondered.

“My God…!! Karen…are you alright?” he asked her.

The figure stropped struggling and turned in the direction of the professors voice. Her body suddenly goes rigid as if she was hit with a sudden electric shock.

“Muummmghh!!!!!” a muffled scream is heard and she suddenly slips into unconsciousness.

All sorts of questions raced through the Professors mind but the one question that he had to know was what happened after the machine disappeared that caused Karen to end up in such a bizarre state? He had to find out. At that moment Dr. Donna Holden entered the laboratory wearing protective garments and gloves. She is in awe when she sees the time-displacement machine. Up until now she had only see schematics of it and was awed at the sight of the actual hardware. Next to it was the Professor cradling in his arms a cocooned female figure. He calls to her.

“Donna! Its Karen under this material. She was in the machine like this. Help me get her to the MED LAB.”

“Doctor you don’t have on your protective gear and you‘re making direct contact with that material covering her.!!!”

“I know, I know, but there wasn’t time to change and she was falling head first out of the machine. I just reacted and caught her.”

“Any idea what this material is surrounding her?” Donna asks

“No, none. All I know is that she vanished 6 months and suddenly returned… like this!”

“We’ll need to put you through decontamination James since you touched this stuff.”

“Don’t worry about me… let’s get her into the exam room!”

Together they lift the encased girl and carry her to the medical lab. She is gently placed on an exam table and Donna and her staff begin working on her. The professor steps out of the exam room into the hallway worried about Karen. He blames himself for her situation since it was he accidentally activated the machine while Karen sat at the controls. Donna steps out of the exam room to speak to the Professor.

“How is she?” he asks.

“Stable now. Still unconscious but her breathing is normal. I’m going to x-ray her James and see how we can get that material off of her body. And what about you?. The protocol rules you set up here says I must examine you too James.“

“Look there is no time for that right now. I’ll be in my lab having a look at that machine.”

He rushes off.

“Hey, should we call General Brubaker about this.” She shouts to him.

“No…. not yet. I want you to free Karen first. You know where to find me.”

Donna shakes her head with worry. Usually Professor Kendal is strict about procedures and now he’s breaking rules that he himself established. She goes back into the exam room.

The professor returns to his lab. His long time colleague Engineer Charles Demorest and his team of technicians isolated the machine inside a special test chamber then begin a full systems check on the time displacement unit via remote control. They find peculiar clues that only deepen the mystery of what happened after the machine vanished. It wasn’t obvious initially but a closer physical examination of the machine control dash board controls and display screens shows signs of having been damaged and then repaired. Nicks and minor dents around the operators control area indicate impact of a blunt object. The internal machinery showed no sign of damage but a key component, the time-phase particle accelerator, was modified to make it run more efficiently. This intrical part determines the direction in which the machine will travel when activated. Professor Kendal is perplexed.

“Strange. Signs of damage and signs of improvement to the unit. Chuck, let’s do power up at 10% and get an elapsed time reading. I want to know exactly how far into the future the machine traveled with Karen.”

The machine is remotely powered up and several display screens light up in the control booth.

To everyone’s astonishment the screen displays an unbelievable date.

“My God…452,638.……….BC.!”

“Professor… that’s means the machine traveled into the past, not the future.” Chuck exclaims

“That doesn’t make any sense Chuck. The machine’s time-phase particle accelerator was re-tooled. Man at that time in our evolution consisted of Archaic Homo sapiens who obviously wouldn’t have had that kind of knowledge."

Chuck examines a second screen that indicates timeline data.

“Yes, you’re right, but that depend of which past time line you are referring to. Look closely at this time line reading James.”

The time-line screen shows that the machine made an unexplained abrupt lateral quantum shift in direction causing it to jump time lines during its journey catapulting it into a parallel backward timeline.

“I’ll be damned! My machine wasn’t designed to do that. Karen’s destination time line differs by 30 degrees from her starting time line where there should be no variance. She somehow traveled into an alternate past."

An alternate reality past where apparently the people there were far more advanced than our ancestors were during this same time period of our time line. ” The Professor adds.

“Amazing. They were intelligent enough to modify a component of a time-displacement machine.”

“Yes, someone did. I also think someone made an attempt to destroy the machine. You saw the damaged console….“

The intercom rings. Its Donna from the medical lab.

“James, Karen‘s examination is complete. I need to see you right away, and, by the way, General Brubaker got wind of the machines re-appearance. He’s furious he wasn’t immediately informed by you.”

The professor frowned. He knows without a doubt now there has been an inside person leaking information to the General. If he could just figure out who it is. The Professor didn’t get along well with General Brubaker who is a tough as nails hard ass from the pentagon who cares nothing about pure research to better mankind and only wants to turn the time-displacement technology into a lethal weapon.

“There is not much we can do now about the General's temporment. When will he be here?”

“He’s in route and will be here in 45 minutes.”

“Thanks…….”

The professor and Chuck exchange a glance.

“Fire and brimstone on its way huh Professor”

“Tell me about it. Chuck, power her down. Brubaker will be bringing his own team since I’ve not followed his damned complete minute by minute disclosure order. I need to buy us some time. I want Level 6 Kendal security encryption on all system data relevant to this time displacement project and no one touches that machine without contacting me first. I will be in the med lab.”

The Professor rushed down to the med lab to find Donna waiting in the hall. She looks worried and a bit confused.

“How was she after you got that material off of her.?” he asks with concern.

“That’s the problem. We couldn’t remove it.”

“What…?” he asks as they enter the med lab.

He sees the cocooned woman is on a lighted table on her back still trapped inside the strange material. All manner of monitoring machinery are connected to her. She is breathing normally.

“Its incredibly tough material James and has absolutely no seams.”

“Did you try cutting it off?”

“Yes we tried that but this material is impervious to being sliced in any direction or even punctured for that matter. We couldn’t even get a filing. We had to wheel her into our multicon-electron microscope tube to get an analysis on the stuff. It’s virtually indestructible. ”

“James take a look at the materials molecular structure reading.”

He is astonished at the readings.

“A Nickel-Titanium metal alloy base. Is this stuff Nitinol?“

“No. Not exactly. Its properties are very similar to Nitinol but differs in some ways. Here look at this.”

She points to the metal data display screen.

“ Like Nitinol, it exhibits an intricate continuous weave that exhibits memory retention properties, but where it differs is how the material covering her nasal cavities behaves. It is in somehow in continuous flux on a microscopic level becoming a breathable material. It’s that constantly changing state that allows her to breath through the alloy easily. Furthermore the material has allowed her to easily pass bodily liquid and solid waste through it within the last 30 minutes operating in this state. All her bodily functions are not hampered at all. On the other hand, this material at the same time severely limits all her muscular movement. Her sight, hearing, and speech is prevented completely as well.”

“Amazing. Have you tried using an electrical charge to redirect and alter the materials form?”

“Yes, but unfortunately, it only made the cocoon more rigid.”

“What about temperature. When she fell out of the machine she felt warm to me and the material seemed very soft. I could see and feel her moving under it.”

“We tried heat and cold. It self-regulates its temperature to compensate to all environmental conditions automatically.”

The professor can’t believe it. Then it occurs to him that Karen may have been put into the material on purpose.

“It’s a prison cocoon. Maybe to stop her from telling us what happened to her.” He exclaims with dread.

“It's much worst than that Professor. It seems to be a more of a horrid torture chamber.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Look at these x-rays. Professor.”

The x-ray reading clearly indicate that material is 3.0 mm thickness with three elongated phallic objects on the inner surface of the material at different locations. Each of the three are located at Karen’s three major ports of entry. These inner surface protrusions measures 7 inches in length and are in the shape of a penis filling Karen’s oral, vaginal and anal cavities completely and are throbbing rhythmically.

“What the HELL!!!!!!…..?“ Professor Kendal say with anger.

“Karen is trapped in some kind of body sheath enclosure that is violating her sexually. The electrocardiogram shows her heart is functioning normally but her pulse rate is elevated and increasing due to the movements of those bodily intrusions. ”

They watch as Karen wiggles and trembles as her body succumbs to the quakes of a deeply felt forced orgasms. Her muffled screams fill the exam room as she tries to catch her breath in desperation.

“That’s the third one the cocoon has inflicted on her within the last 45 minutes. Her orgasms are the direct result of being violated by this material surrounding her and we can’t help her.”

“You make it sound as if that material is ..alive..”

“Its morphing properties are so strangely different. They are instantaneous and we don‘t know what is initiating the changes. It seems as if it react on its own. There is definitely some type of mechanical-biological symbiotic relationship between the material and its host.”

“We have to get this off of Karen right now. I’m going to get ready. I want to take a closer look at her…”

Donna and the Professor puts on a protective equipment then enters the lab. Technicians monitor the exam in a booth adjacent the exam room. He looks down at Karen trapped in the smooth iridescent material. Then he sees something on the area covering Karen’s feet.

“What is it Professor.?” Donna asks

“I don’t know. There seems to be small darker spot of discoloration on the material covering her feet. It’s dull and not shiny like the rest of this material.“

Donna looks and sees nothing. She signals to Glen, the technician, in the control booth.

“Nothing visible Doctor. There are no dark spots. The material is of all uniform color on her feet according to our instruments.” he says.

“Professor are you certain you actually see a spot there..?” Donna asks.

“You’re damn right I do and I don’t know why no one else can see it.”

The Professor sees Karen fighting beneath the cocoon, her torture continuing. He suddenly removes the rubber glove covering his right hand.

Donna panics.

“Professor what are you doing? Put your glove back on!!” Donna shouts.

“It’s ok Donna… I’ve already touched this stuff when she fell out of the machine remember and nothing happened to me.”

The professor places his fingers on the dark patch the top of Karen’s feet and an immediately electrical discharge occurs producing an arch of electricity emanating from the material linking the professor’s hand to the metal.

“James!..“ Donna screams

“It’s ok.. I don’t know why but I don’t even feel the electricity…I… I have an Idea. Are you guys getting all of this?”

“Yes Professor every bit. The computers say that arch has you linked to that material on a molecular level.”

“Incredible. I’m going to try something.”

He slowly runs his fingers along the surface of the cocoon. He and Donna watch astonished as the material covering Karen’s feet begins to split open like an invisible zipper being opened revealing the woman’s toes.

“Professor! How are you doing that?” Donna asks perplexed.

“I…I don’t know. I’m just… thinking about it opening as I touch it. This material is reacting… to my thoughts….”

The metal splits open further and both of Karen’s feet are now completely exposed. On the surface of her right foot is a small tattoo of a rose. Suddenly Donna gasps and backs up rapidly.

“Oh my God!!” She whispers.

“Donna? Donna what is it?” he asks as she bolts out of the exam room.

The professor removes his hand and the arch disappears with a flash. The opening abruptly stops peeling away and quickly closes around the woman’s feet again becoming smooth and seamless as it was before. He signals to the medical team.

“Do not stop recording data. I‘ll be right back.” He darts out of the lab.

The profession sees Donna running down the hall and into an office. He follows her inside. He sees her huddled in a corner very disturbed.

“Donna what is it?”

“No it can’t be... it just can not BE !!!!….”

The Professor kneels down and holds her in his arms then he helps her up.

“What can’t be?… what are you talking about?”

“Her foot…it…. it can’t be… it just can‘t….” she says nearly sobbing.

“Donna tell me what you are talking about!!!…” he says firmly.

She shoves him back. She looks at him apologetically then with aguish she removes her right shoe and sock and shows the professor her foot. The Professor looks down and sees on the top of Donna’s barefoot is a small tattoo of a rose identical in design and location as the cocooned woman.

The Professor is stunned into silence for a moment. “My God. That means that isn’t Karen in there… it’s…”

Karen interrupts him with a quivering voice.

“Yes James… it’s me in there.”

End of Part one.

13.05.11

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